The Mobile Historic Development Commission and the Architectural Review Board usually exercise their power in relatively tranquil obscurity, although their rules occasionally result in highly visible rows with developers and homeowners.

Now, Mayor Sam Jones' legal staff maintains that the commission and the board are operating on uncertain legal ground. Larry Wettermark, the city attorney, and others have been drawing up a new ordinance that would dissolve the regulators in their current form and replace them with newly constituted entities.

"Because the rules enforced by the board involve private property rights in telling people what they can and cannot do to their own homes, it's extremely important that we follow the law," Wettermark said.

The changes would also greatly increase the mayor's power to influence development in the city's seven historic districts. This has caused some members of the Historic Development Commission to speculate about the mayor's motives.

"In general people have been very concerned," said Rennie Brabner, commission president.

Wettermark did not give a time frame for the ordinance, which would be subject to City Council consideration.

Wettermark insisted that the changes are in the interest of historic neighborhoods.

"The city's only motivation in doing this is to strengthen historic preservation in the city. The mayor is committed to asking the City Council to appoint people who are strongly committed to historic preservation efforts," Wettermark said.

When the Press-Register recently interviewed members of the commission, it wasn't clear that they knew precisely where their powers started and stopped.

According to a close reading of Mobile's ordinance, the commission is primarily responsible for identifying historic neighborhoods and generally promoting development and education that preserves their character.

In practice, the commission has also drafted the architectural standards that govern the historic districts.

Such purview is not expressly granted under the city's ordinance.

The responsibility of setting up the rules appears to be that of the Architectural Review Board, to which the ordinance grants the authority to "adopt general design standards" that it can use to control what gets built in historic districts.

Mobile's historic development out of step with state law

Additionally, the method used by the commission and the board to appoint its members is far out of step with state law, which empowers mayors to nominate candidates subject to council approval.

Instead:

Most of the Historic Development Commission's 70 or so members are appointed by 30-some civic organizations.

The 11 members of the Architectural Review Board are nominated by the Mobile Historic Preservation Society, the Historic Development Commission and the American Institute of Architects.

The commission appointments are not subject to council endorsement, but the board nominations are.

The roots of this system go back to the creation of the two entities in 1962 and predate the state law by more than two decades. The state law included a grandfather clause that allowed pre-existing commissions and boards to continue. Wettermark, however, said that changes made to the local ordinance in 2002 render the grandfather clause no longer applicable.

In essence, he said, it's time for Mobile to get in line with state law.

Members of the Historic Development Commission counter that the current system ensures grassroots participation.

MHDC: New rules give mayor too much power

Clara Armbrecht, who sits on the executive committee, said that putting the appointment process in the hands of the civic groups allows the community to be engaged and involved.

But putting any mayor in charge of who sits on the commission and the board would concentrate too much power in the city administration's hands, according to Armbrecht's argument.

The commission has suggested allowing the mayor to pick nominees from a roster of the commission's choosing, Armbrecht said.

"We agree that our local ordinance may need to be clarified in some way, but we shouldn't throw the baby out with the bath water," she said.